July 26, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Listening

A common saying in the program is “If you don’t like what you hear at this meeting, leave it here.” Many people do just that; they leave everything at the meetings. Most of us did not get better by listening only to what we wanted to hear.

What helped us in the long run was listening to things we didn’t want to hear, such as “Work the Steps—you’re no better than anyone else,” and “Don’t take that first fix, pill, or drink.” The hard work of recovery, the things we don’t want to do, are often the very things that make it possible for us to arrest our disease.

Am I listening to what I need to hear?

Higher Power, grant me the courage to listen to the hard things and apply them in my program today.

Today I will listen to…

Hazelden Foundation

July 26, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Sunday, July 26, 2020

" ...(T)his program is not for sissies for ...it takes a man to make the grade. It is not too difficult nor easy to grasp. I have had many more reasons to drink since I have been in AA than I had in all the years of my drinking. I've had more problems but, thank God, I have had the teachings of AA with which to face them. ...When I hear the more rugged stories of alcoholics who became sicker than I did with this affliction, I humbly thank God for showing me 'the handwriting on the wall.'" - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Part II ("They Stopped in Time"), Ch 8 ("Rum, Radio and Television"), p 367.

Today, a Program that is not without work, that working it takes more courage than to keep drinking and that being sober will not shield us from the problems that non-alcoholics face but will arm us with stronger combat ammunition. I heed the word of the experienced and not set myself up for a slip or relapse if the promises of the Program don't come quickly enough to me - because I haven't worked for those promises. Nor will I dismiss the Program that it doesn't work when I face the problems that everyone else has. Problems will continue to arise; how I handle them will depend on how I work the Program. For as courageous and bold my decision to stop drinking, I need even more to graduate from being dry to being sober. Today, I'm ready to give it my all, to "go to any lengths." And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2020

July 26, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, July 26, 2020

AA Thought for the Day
When we come to the end of our lives on earth, we will take no material thing with us. We will not take one cent in our cold, dead hands. The only things that we may take are the things we have given away. If we have helped others, we may take that with us; if we have given of our time and money for the good of AA, we may take that with us. Looking back over our lives, what are we proud of? Not what we have gained for ourselves, but what few good deeds we have done. Those are the things that really matter in the long run.

What will I take with me when I go?

Meditation for the Day
"Hallowed be Thy Name." What does that mean to us? Here "name" is used in the sense of "spirit." The words mean praise to God for His spirit in the world, making us better. We should be especially grateful for God's spirit, which gives us the strength to overcome all that is base in our lives. His spirit is powerful. It can help us to live a conquering, abundant life. So we praise and thank Him for His spirit in our lives and in the lives of others.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be grateful for God's spirit in me. I pray that I may try to live in accordance with it.

Hazelden Foundation

July 26, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Sunday, July 26, 2020

Reflection for the Day
Now that I avail myself of the letters H-O-W suggested by friends in The Program - Honesty, Open-Mindedness, Willingness - I see things differently. In ways that I couldn't have predicted and surely never expected, I've come to see things quite differently from the person I was before coming to The Program. I feel good most days. I seldom feel bad, and never for long. Certainly never as bad as I used to feel all of the time.

Is my worst day now infinitely better than my best day previously?

Today I Pray
May I remember today to say "thank you" to my Higher Power, to my friends in the group and to the whole, vast fellowship of recovering chemically dependent persons for making me know that things do get better. I give thanks, too, for those verbal boosters, the tags and slogans which have so often burst into my brain at exactly the moments when they were needed, redefining my purpose, restoring my patience, reminding me of my God.

Today I Will Remember
How it was.

Hazelden Foundation

July 26, 2020 - Readings in Recovery; The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Sunday, July 26, 2020

Patience is a virtue that few alcoholics have. We want to do everything yesterday. Even after we sober up, we seldom acquire any substantial amount of this virtue. We feel a real need to make up for all our lost years; we fret and fume over delays; we feel the world should synchronize their watches with ours.

Like Phillips Brooks, we are in a hurry, but God isn't.

Hazelden Foundation

July 26, 2020 - Rise 'n shine for a worry- and fear-free Sunday with faith that it's going to be awesome

Good morning to this fabulous Sunday that we want to keep as easy-going as we can despite the challenges we all face ...one of those challenges does not have to include things and people who offer us nothing but hate and disrespect

July 25, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

One must not hold one’s self so divine as to be unwilling occasionally to make improvements in one’s creations. — Ludwig van Beethoven

We addicted and codependent men too often feel ashamed of our mistakes. It pains us to admit there is room for improvement in what we have done. When we do see that our work can be improved, shame overwhelms us. Our oversensitivity to flaws puts us in a kind of competition with God. We are not yet resigned to letting ourselves be fully human—and letting God be God. Life is much calmer when we remember that who we are and what we do are not the same.

We are deeper and richer than any object we create or any job we hold. A genius like Beethoven could see he needed to make occasional improvements in his compositions, and we can follow his model. Allowing for imperfection, we are better prepared to deal with it, and we are liberated to do our jobs and live our lives more fully.

I will be content to let God be God and accept my life with all its need for improvements.

Hazelden Foundation

July 25, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Saturday, July 25, 2020

Today, self-pity comes off my dance card. Just as alcohol drove me to being sick and tired of being sick and tired, so it goes with self-pity. The reason for self-pity can never be justified. For me, self-pity ranks behind resentment as the quickest and surest way to a slip or relapse. I have to ask why I harbor pity for myself. Is it because I endured so many travails during and after my drinking days? Or maybe I lost a job or two, got a lifetime driver's license suspension, drank my way into a sea of debt, got a divorce or two, have family who still wants nothing to do with me. Or maybe there's death taking too much and too many from me. So what is the function of self-pity? Maybe my ego still requires me to be the center of attention, or maybe I have a victim complex, or maybe I'm looking for justification to start drinking again - or to keep drinking. Or maybe I simply don't know how to deal with whatever psychic pain exists. Whatever its reason or purpose, self-pity serves only to impose isolation and keeps me from feeling and living something better. Today, just as it did with drinking, the same goes for self-pity: enough's enough! And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2020

July 25, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, July 25, 2020

AA Thought for the Day
We are living on borrowed time. We are living today because of AA and the grace of God. And what there is left of our lives we owe to AA and to God. We should make the best use we can of our borrowed time and in some small measure pay back for that part of our lives which we wasted before we came into AA. Our lives from now on are not our own. We hold them in trust for God and AA. And we must do all we can to forward the great movement that has given us a new lease on life.

Am I holding my life in trust for AA?

Meditation for the Day
You should hold your life in trust for God. Think deeply on what that means. Is anything too much to expect from such a life? Do you begin to see how dedicated a life on trust for God can be? In such a life, miracles can happen. If you are faithful, you can believe that God has many good things in store for you. God can be Lord of your life, controller of your days, of your present and your future. Try to act as God guides and leave all results to Him. Do not hold back, but go all out for God and the better life. Make good your trust.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may hold my life in trust for God. I pray that I may no longer consider my life as all my own.

Hazelden Foundation

July 25, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Saturday, July 25, 2020

Reflection for the Day
The slogans of The Program are seemingly clear and simple. Yet they may still have different meanings for different people, according to their own experience and reaction to the words and ideas. Take, for example, the slogan, "Let Go and Let God." For some people, it may suggest that all we have to do is sidestep the challenges that confront us and, somehow, God will do all the work. We must remember that God gives us free will, intelligence and good sense - it is clearly His intention that we use these gifts. If I'm receptive, God will make His will known to me step by step, but I must carry it out.

Do I sometimes act as if surrender to God's will is a passport to inertia?

Today I Pray
May my "passport" be stamped with "action." May my travels be motivated by challenges I can readily recognize as things to do, not things to watch. I pray that I may make the most of my gifts from God, of talents that I am aware of and some I have yet to discover. May I not "let go" and give up but keep on learning, growing, doing, serving, praying, carrying out the will of God as I understand it.

Today I Will Remember
God meant me to make the most of myself.

Hazelden Foundation

July 25, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Saturday, July 25, 2020

Poverty will often force a man into sobriety because of the lack of funds with which to purchase more to drink. Prosperity, on the other hand, gives us the money, the leisure and inclination to celebrate that prosperity.

Far too frequently the new man climbs out of the gutter, gets a job and becomes re-established with his family and does well until a payday puts cash in his pocket again.

That bank roll which you think you want may be the very thing you least want.

Hazelden Foundation

July 25, 2020 - Good morning and let's keep things calm and cool this super Saturday and serene weekend

Good morning with gratitude and enthusiasm for this beautiful Sunday and weekend ...keep cool and calm and don't empower anyone and anything to get under your skin and instead give you power to tell 'em where to go

July 24, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Friday, July 24, 2020

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was. — Irish proverb

Each of us has been given recovery. Now it’s up to each of us what we do with it. At times, we’ll work hard and grow quickly. At other times, our growth will be slower. This is okay. We’re not in a race. Our pace is not important. What is important is that we’re always working on our recovery.

We’re all part of a fellowship, a caring group. We’re one of many. But each of us is important. Each one of us will have a special way to work our programs through our readings, friends, meetings, and what we know of how life works. Each of us puts together a miracle of recovery. We then take our miracle and share it with others, so they can build their miracle.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, help me work at growing. Help me be a person who is an important part of a group.

Action for the Day

Today I’ll work at seeing myself as very important. I’ll remind myself that others’ recovery also depends on my recovery. I am needed.

Hazelden Foundation

July 24, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Friday, July 24, 2020

Today, gratitude as attitude. Gratitude for even the smallest of gains, seen and unseen, as opposed to complaining that the gains aren't big enough. My attitude is a reflection of the quality of my sobriety. Even in the most demanding of days when most things seem to go wrong and few of them right, I must pause before reacting in a way I will likely regret later and remember my attitude in my drinking days. Then, my attitude was based on feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, fear, anger, regret, revenge, apathy and self-centeredness. They are the character defects as confessed in my Fourth Step, and confession alone does not mean those defects are gone. They remain; my Program is to improve on them day by day until they exist no more. Today, my attitude is not to rekindle the defects of my character but to disempower them with humility, empathy, answering a call to service and remembering, always, that my attitude defines me as either sober or as a dry drunk. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2020

July 24, 2020 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, July 24, 2020

AA Thought for the Day
AA is like a dike, holding back the ocean of liquor. If we take one glass of liquor, it is like making a small hole in the dike and, once such a hole has been made, the whole ocean of alcohol may rush in upon us. By practicing the AA principles, we keep the dike strong and in repair. We spot any weakness or crack in that dike and make the necessary repairs before any damage is done. Outside the dike is the whole ocean of alcohol, waiting to engulf us again in despair.

Am I keeping the dike strong?

Meditation for the Day
Keep as close as you can to the Higher Power. Try to think, act and live as though you were always in God's presence. Keeping close to a Power greater than yourself is the solution to most of the earth's problems. Try to practice the presence of God in the things you think and do. That is the secret of personal power. It is the thing which influences the lives of others for good. Abide in the Lord and rejoice in His love. Keep close to the Divine Spirit in the universe. Keep God close behind your thoughts.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may keep close to the Mind of God. I pray that I may live with Him in my heart and mind.

Hazelden Foundation